More than 1,000 people participated in the commemorating activities Friday morning in Tangshan, northern Hebei Province, to mark the 30th anniversary ofthe terrible earthquake which killed more than 240,000 people in the city.

At 8:30 AM Friday people from all walks of life headed by Bai Keming, secretary of the Hebei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), gathered at a square in downtown Tangshan and presented flower baskets to the monument for the citizens and rescuers that died in the mishap.

"Thirty years on, we never forget the victims in the tragedy, but we should carry on our lives with courage, confidence and hope," said Bai at the meeting held later in the morning.

Zhang He, secretary of the CPC City Committee of Tangshan, said that the people in the city have gradually stepped out of shadows of the quake and a new Tangshan with robust economy, stable society and happy citizens has been reborn from the ruins and debris.

Tangshan has more than seven million people living in the 13,472 square-kilometer municipal area, including an urban population of three million, according to the official website of the Tangshan city government.

In the past year, its gross domestic product grew by 15.1 percent to reach 202.7 billion yuan (US$25.3 billion), ranking first in Hebei Province.

The per capita disposable income for urban residents was 10,488yuan (US$1,311) in 2005 and rural residents, 4,582 yuan (US$572.8).

"The past 30 years proves Tangshan would not make the achievements today without the caring of the central government, the support from all the people across the country and selfless devotion from the People's Liberation Army," said Bai.

An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale razed Tangshan,200 kilometers east of Beijing, early in the morning of July 28, 1976, leaving 242,769 people dead and 164,851 critically injured.
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2006)